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The company behind Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm food products is making a key ingredient change amid a push from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Tyson Foods will remove all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from its products by the end of this month.
Donnie King, president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas-based company, announced the news during an earnings call on Monday.
"As a recognized leader in protein, none of the products Tyson Foods offers through our school nutrition programs include petroleum-based synthetic dyes as ingredients," King said.
Most of the company's retail-branded Tyson products, including its chicken nuggets, "do not contain any of these types of dyes, and we have been proactively reformulating those few products that do," he said.
Tyson Foods will do away with petroleum-based synthetic dyes as ingredients by the end of the month, its president and CEO said this week. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
"We expect that our work to eliminate the use of petroleum-based synthetic dyes in production will be completed by the end of May."
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That's ahead of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) deadline for food manufacturers "to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes – FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1 and FD&C Blue No. 2 – from the food supply by the end of next year," he said.
Tyson chicken nuggets "do not contain any of these types of dyes." (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The FDA previously called for the removal of red dye from foods, dietary supplements and ingested medicines in January, as Fox News Digital reported at the time.
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PepsiCo's chair and chief executive officer announced on April 24 that its popular snack foods like Lay's and Tostitos "will be out of artificial colors by the end of this year."
The FDA has banned synthetic dyes from the food supply by the end of next year. (iStock)
Tyson Foods, along with its subsidiaries, operates several major brands, including Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean and Wright Brand.
Tyson Foods is probably best known for its chicken nuggets (not pictured), but it also owns Hillshire Farm and Jimmy Dean brands. (iStock)
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A spokesperson for Tyson Foods told Fox News Digital the company declined to provide further comment.
Peter Burke is a lifestyle editor with Fox News Digital.
